Jewish history museum set to open near historic Philadelphia sites

View full sizeNational Museum of American Jewish HistoryThe National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia will have a grand opening this weekend, including a sold-out gala Saturday night featuring comedian Jerry Seinfeld and singer Bette Midler.

Although the Jewish population in the United States took a big jump during the 20th century, Jews have been part of the American experience for more than 350 years. Now there is a new museum in Philadelphia celebrating that long involvement. The National Museum of American Jewish History is just off Independence Mall, not far from where the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution were born.

“There’s no better place to tell this story,” said Jay Nachman, public relations director for the $150 million museum. “This is where we have the Declaration and the Constitution, the documents that allowed Jews and all Americans to accomplish what we have.”

The new travel destination begins life this weekend with a grand opening celebration, before opening to the general public on Nov. 26. The grand opening will feature performances by comedian Jerry Seinfeld and singer Bette Midler at a sold-out gala on Saturday night, while Vice President Joe Biden is scheduled to speak during a public ribbon cutting starting at noon on Sunday.

Once the museum’s 25,000-square-foot gallery opens to the general public in about three weeks, visitors will be invited to explore the promise and challenges of liberty through the lens of the American Jewish experience. The hall features a variety of interactive exhibits, historical artifacts and personal stories spread across three and a half floors. Exhibits include items dating back to the arrival of the Jews on this continent in 1654, but also iconic Hollywood items such as the typewriter from director Steven Spielberg’s Academy Award-winning “Schindler’s List” and a costume worn by Barbra Streisand in “Yentl.”

“This will be the largest institution of its kind,” said Dr. Josh Perelman, deputy director of exhibitions, programs and collections. “We take very seriously the ‘national’ in our title. Our intent in developing this museum is to provide as diverse and broad a national story as we could.”

Inside the gallery, an Only in America/Hall of Fame area will celebrate the lives and achievements of eighteen Jewish Americans who exemplify a central theme of the museum—that America has provided individuals with extraordinary opportunities. Among them, according to Perelman, are well known figures such as Spielberg, Streisand, major league pitcher Sandy Koufax and theoretical physicist Albert Einstein. But there are also some people who are less well-known outside the Jewish American culture, such as Hebrew Union College founder Isaac Mayer Wise, whose Cincinnati school was the first to graduate ordained rabbis in America.

“For the Jewish people, America represented a relative safe haven, one that afforded them a greater level of freedom than they could experience anywhere in the world, at least until the birth of modern Israel,” Perelman said. But the earliest Jewish settlers also experienced violence and anti-Semitism. “American freedom is imperfect,” he added, “and that’s a point we try to make, too.”

The earliest history of Jewish people in the New World is a bit murky, as it is with many groups who came to the English colonies to escape persecution or simply to find a new life. A Jewish craftsman reportedly lived in the so-called “Lost Colony” of Roanoke, N.C., in 1585, but returned to Europe before the entire settlement mysteriously disappeared. Other Jewish settlers arrived in New England soon after the Pilgrims, but the starting date for the Jewish experience in America is often listed as 1654, when 23 Jews arrived at the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam, now New York City.

In central Pennsylvania, the first identified Jew was merchant Isaac Miranda, who settled near Lancaster around 1710 and began trading with local native Americans. By the early 1700s, there were an estimated 250 identifiable Jews in the English colonies. Today, there are nearly 6.5 million Jews living in the United States, according to a 2006 survey by the American Jewish Yearbook. That number exceeds the population of Israel, and includes about 285,000 Jewish Americans living in Pennsylvania. New York, with about 1.7 million Jews, remains the Jewish American stronghold.

Perelman said he expected that many Jewish Americans will be interested in visiting the museum, but added that he hoped to attract some of the 4 million people who annually visit historical sites in Philadelphia. “We fit what I feel is a vital niche,” he said. “On the one hand, we are telling the story of American Jews, but on the other hand this is a place where anyone interested in our national history can come and experience the past through the eyes of a particular minority group.”

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